The Slytherin Prince and the Ravenclaw Dreamer
by SerenityAlecandtheMadHatter
Summary: Draco Malfoy meets Luna Lovegood in the Room of Requirement his Sixth year, and things don't turn out quite like he expected. DMLL, short story, might make a longer one if I get good reviews.
1. Chapter 1

_**Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, it's world, or it's characters. All of those belong to the amazing J.K. Rowling, and anyone she had sold the rights to. That does not include me. I do not make any profit from this fanfiction, and no copyright infringement is intended. I only own this spin-off of her world, nothing else that is recognizable as the world or characters of Harry Potter.**_

He couldn't do this. It was impossible. How could the Dark Lord hope for him to do this? A sixteen-year-old boy! And while Draco was a proud Slytherin, pureblood heir to the Malfoy name… even he had to admit that Snape was probably right. Voldemort couldn't actually mean for him to do this, to kill Dumbledore; he just wanted to use Draco's failure as an excuse to kill them.

Draco couldn't let that happen. But what was he to do? He had tried the cursed necklace, he had tried the poisoned mead, yet all of his attempts were destroyed by the Immortal Prat, the Boy-Who-Just-Wouldn't-Die. Was it his fault that Potter had insanely fantastic luck? Or that Draco's was nonexistent?

He walked through the seventh floor corridor at just past midnight, making sure the coast was clear before he closed his eyes and paced in front of the Room of Requirement three times, thinking hard of what he needed. Crabbe and Goyle were asleep and he didn't bother waking them; the two noisy brutes would get him caught before they even made it to the right floor.

After the third time around Draco saw a door materialize in front of him, silver with gold and peach designs swirling around it. It was different from what he was used to and he frowned at it, pausing a moment. Then he heard footsteps echoing through the corridor and started.

"Those bloody kids won't know what coming to them, no they won't—"said a voice that distinctly belonged to Filch, most likely talking to his wretched cat Mrs. Norris. Draco grabbed the door handle and darted inside, shutting it quickly behind him. He hoped the door had disappeared as soon as he could get inside, but he could no longer hear the voices outside the door to tell. He did, however, hear another voice.

"I didn't expect you here." A pleasant voice said, reminding Draco much of songbirds, or ringing bells. His storm-grey eyes widened as he whipped around to see one Luna Lovegood looking at him from her perch on a window seat. Through his shock at finding a person in his room, he realized that the window seat was a new edition. Then, glancing around the room, he realized that it wasn't. He was in a completely different place altogether.

It looked much like the living room of a country home, with odd little knick-knacks spread throughout that reminded him much of the ones in Dumbledore's office. Through the window bright sunlight was showing through despite it being near midnight in the real world, and Draco could hear the soft pitter-patter of rain against the window pane now that he paid attention to it.

The room must have known Luna was there and simply opened the door for him instead of changing it any. Obviously one of Luna's requirements hadn't been to not let anyone else inside, he thought dryly. But that begged the question what she was doing in the Room of Requirement in the first place, and how to explain his own appearance there.

She was simply looking at him pleasantly, a small smile on her pale pink lips. She was as fair-skinned as Draco was, with the silvery-white blonde hair to match. He eyed her warily. Of course she knew of this room—she had been in Dumbledore's Army last year. But he was not pleased to find someone else using his space. What was he going to do if he didn't get this done in time?

That brought him back to his earlier decision… that he couldn't do it. Draco scowled at the witch, his own tumultuous feelings disguised through the layer of annoyance that he carefully plastered onto his face. Draco still had his pride, and it would never allow anyone—particularly friends of Potter's—see him in distress.

"What are you doing here, Loony?" He asked, filling his voice with as much disdain as possible as he stayed in his spot by the door. He wanted to leave, to go back to his dormitory and just try again the next day, but Filch was possibly still outside the room, and he couldn't risk getting caught and serving a detention. He needed all the time he could get to finish his task before the end of term.

"Oh, I'm just watching the rain." Luna said with a smile, seeming completely undisturbed by his rudeness. She gestured back out at the window, and Draco followed her gaze to the bright sky. He would have questioned the light on a normal day, but this was the Room of Requirement—it could make it snow puppies if she wanted it to. The sun made patterns in Luna's silky hair, and Draco found his eyes drawn to them before he tore his gaze away.

"You don't have to be here at midnight to watch the sky." He sneered, waiting for her to get the hint and leave, as almost anyone else would have, possibly excepting the Chosen Prick and his crew. They would have preferred to duel, and in his current mood Draco would be most willing to oblige to that.

"No, but it's more peaceful here. There's no one else to interrupt the Sendrals." She said in a dreamy voice, turning her face to look out the window again. Draco stared at her. Was she really insinuating that _he_ was the one that should leave? Like hell he would do that! His task was a million times more important than anything Loony Lovegood could come up with.

"What the hell are _Sendrals_?" Draco asked instead with annoyance. They were probably some stupid magical bunnies that lived in rainbows and pranced around in fields of candy unicorn tears. _The idiot_, Draco thought scathingly. Well, she was in Ravenclaw, so she probably wasn't an idiot. But still… only an idiot or something who lived in a different universe could honestly believe anything that _The Quibbler_ published.

Luna looked over at him and her eyes were bright and oddly… catching. "They live in the rain. There are some above your head right now." She told him seriously, and Draco instinctively looked up, as if he was going to see some little goblin-type creatures floating around in the air before he cursed himself for his stupidity when he saw nothing there. "Made you look." Luna said in an almost smug tone. "The Room of Requirement can't create creatures, silly." She told him, shaking her head as if _he_ were the insane one.

Draco looked at her disbelievingly, completely and utterly shocked. This girl played a joke on _him_—the Slytherin Prince—and then called him _silly_? What was the world coming to? Him, the heir of Malfoy, being called silly! He stared at her, affronted and incredulous, and she just smiled at him knowingly.

Dear Merlin, somebody help him.


	2. Chapter 2

_**Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, it's world, or it's characters. All of those belong to the amazing J.K. Rowling, and anyone she had sold the rights to. That does not include me. I do not make any profit from this fanfiction, and no copyright infringement is intended. I only own this spin-off of her world, nothing else that is recognizable as the world or characters of Harry Potter.**_

"You have wrackspurts in your head, did you know?" Luna asked calmly, looking from him back out to the window. Draco watched her warily as he slowly took a step into the room, wondering how in Merlin he had gotten stuck in the Room of Requirement with the Ravenclaw Loony. Even her own house made fun of her, and now he couldn't leave because of Filch. Bloody Hell.

"I'm not falling for that again." Draco told her, his tone ice. It had been stupid of him to even look the last time, he was not going to make the same mistake and play her idiotic games.

Luna just shook her head and glanced at him, fingering her butter-beer cap necklace. At least she wasn't wearing Raddish earrings… "No, they're really there. They make your brain go all fuzzy, can't you feel it?" She asked, tilting her head sideways as he examined his skull. What was she going on about?

Draco immediately dismissed her words, deciding it would make him as much of a lunatic as her if he indulged her fantasies. He just glared at her and looked around the room again. The walls were a wretched peach color, but the carpet was a dark Slytherin green, and he took some comfort in that. The ceiling was a midnight blue with silvery-white stars and he imagined that this could only be based off of her own house. It was too crazy and…. Luna.

Not that he knew much about Luna, nor did he want to—even if she was a pureblood. "If you wouldn't mind leaving, I need the room." He told her in a tone that obviously said he didn't care if she _did _mind. Draco Malfoy was good at intimidation, something that he had learned from his father and had proved most useful after being sorted into Slytherin. His house name invoked almost enough fear already.

"Oh, that's fine. Go ahead and use it." She told him airily, but she didn't stand up, instead watching the rain fall with soft pats. What was outside that window? How far could the Room of Requirement extend it's reach? He decided not to look. It was beneath him to pretend that anything going on in Loony Lovegood's head was of any interest at all to him.

Draco stared at her, waiting for her to stand. She didn't. He sighed in irritation. "I need the room _alone_." He told her in exasperation. For a Ravenclaw she was rather thick.

"You can ask it while I'm here, it doesn't make a difference to me, and the room doesn't care which of us asks now." She told him with an impatient wave of her hand, like _she _was the one getting fed up with _him_. Draco's grey eyes narrowed as he looked at the impertinent blonde witch. He was not going to just let her see what he was working on—she would go to Dumbledore in an instant, he was sure. Her even knowing that he needed the Room of Requirement was too much information, but that was something he couldn't help now.

"Fine." He hissed finally, and stalked to the opposite side of the room where a green and silver door appeared. He opened it and walked into the room that he needed. Instantly he barred the door mentally to where she couldn't get in and turned to face the Vanishing Cabinet. Finally, he could work.

It was with a sigh that he opened the cabinet door to see a dead bird inside. Loony would probably have a fit if she saw the animal, saying something about how every dead creature affected the universe in all of Its glory, or some other insane thought.

Draco paused, his hand reached out to the bird. Why was he thinking about what _she _would say? She didn't matter now that he wasn't in her presence, and yet he was thinking about her. Draco had never given her much thought, nor did he want to, he decided with a grim resolution, and picked up the dead bird.


	3. Chapter 3

_**Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, it's world, or it's characters. All of those belong to the amazing J.K. Rowling, and anyone she had sold the rights to. That does not include me. I do not make any profit from this fanfiction, and no copyright infringement is intended. I only own this spin-off of her world, nothing else that is recognizable as the world or characters of Harry Potter.**_

By the time Draco was ready to leave it was past three in the morning. He had noticed that at about one the door from the room with the cabinet had changed to look like the one he typically went through to enter and leave the Room of Requirement, and he assumed that meant Loony Lovegood had left. It turned out, he found when he opened the door to leave, that he was right.

His tired grey eyes swept the corridor before he set off with slow, heavy steps to the Slytherin common room. He only had a few blessed hours to sleep until his first class, which he sadly could not miss. It would not due to raise suspicion when he wasn't even close to finishing his tasks.

The next morning he skipped breakfast, heading to the library instead. Madam Pince glared at him as he entered but he ignored it and handed her the note Snape had written to give Draco access to the restricted section. The Professor had given him several to use at his own leniency, and Draco planned to make full use of that fact.

He walked off to the back corner of the library into the section he needed and started scanning the shelves, looking for anything that might help him. There was not a whole lot written on how to fix vanishing cabinets-not in the Hogwarts Library, anyways-and it was a difficult task to say the least. A simple _repairo _would not suffice on such a complicated magical object, as he had learned the hard way.

Draco picked out a book entitled '_Dark Objects and their Uses' _and started skimming through it. He quickly deduced it didn't hold anything on vanishing cabinets and slipped it back into its slot, moving along the dank, dusty aisles to find anything that might help him. He was also half looking for something to help him in his other task-killing Dumbledore. But that was also easier said than done.

"Your head is full of wrackspurts again." A voice said from Draco's left. He jumped at the silence broken by Luna's ringing voice and turned to look at her, fixing his expression into a suitable glare. She was standing next to him, holding several books in her own arms as she gave him an unabashed smile. He took a moment to wonder at her presence in the restricted section before he realized what she had said.

Draco tore his gaze to her eyes when she spoke next. "Yes, they do." She said confidently, and her frown disappeared completely. "Your eyes are closed." She told him matter-of-fact, and Draco raised one pale eyebrow. His eyes were closed? _He_ was the one that didn't see the world correctly? That was a laugh.

"Whatever." He said with a sneer, moving into another aisle of the section and skimming over the books there. He didn't know why she followed him, but follow she did. The Ravenclaw girl had never bothered him before-why now? If only he had gone back out and faced Filch last night instead of talking to her...

"_'Dark Potions and their uses in Elemental Magic'_?" Luna questioned, reading from the cover of his book. Damn. Why the hell should she care? The bloody girl couldn't understand when someone didn't want her there, could she?

Well, she had forced him to be direct... Draco turned to her, looking we straight in the eye. "Go bother someone else." Draco said in icy tones, and then turned back to the bookshelf. He was careful not to look at her again, waiting for his words to sink in.

When he turned to go down another aisle, she didn't follow.


	4. Chapter 4

_**Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, it's world, or it's characters. All of those belong to the amazing J.K. Rowling, and anyone she had sold the rights to. That does not include me. I do not make any profit from this fanfiction, and no copyright infringement is intended. I only own this spin-off of her world, nothing else that is recognizable as the world or characters of Harry Potter.**_

Draco hated himself. He hated himself for thinking about her so bloody often. It was like she was a wrack-whatever in his head and she just wouldn't get out. She picked at his brain and tried to get him to talk to her, but he wouldn't. He avoided her like the plague; which, to him, she almost was.

In the three days since the library incident she hadn't come up to him once. That was good. There was no marked difference in how she acted, either-what had he been expecting? Fervent glances shot at him from across the Great Hall? As if. He could only hope that she had understood his warning and decided to leave him be.

It was because of that he could walk to the Room of Requirement now, just after classes ended, and be completely relaxed.

Luna hadn't shown up in the room since that first night, and he had absolutely no expectations that she would again. Of course, he normally went there when he figured she would be busy in classes, or some other endeavor... though he wouldn't admit to anyone that he went to such great lengths to avoid one girl-that she had any effect on him at all.

Crabbe and Goyle had used the last of the Polyjuice potion the night before, and Draco was planning to get more from Snape's store cabinet, so he was alone this time. He walked past the corridor three times, and then heard footsteps coming from around the corner. He dived to the door and opened it, slipping his lean frame inside quickly before shutting it back behind him, breathing a sigh of relief.

"This must be Déjà Vu." A voice pealed from behind him, and Draco let out a deep breath, his hand clenching around the door knob until his knuckles turned white. Then he turned to face Loony Lovegood.

"I'm not even going to bother asking what that is." He said with a dark glare, walking towards the green and silver door with the knob of a metal snake while he spoke, and passing by the pale girl sitting in her favorite window seat.

"It's a muggle saying. Hermione told it to me; it's the experience of feeling like something has happened before." She said dreamily, and Draco scowled to himself. Even though she was a pureblood she polluted herself by associating with that muggle filth. He had to admit, though, that he had felt that sensation before... But he would never admit to it.

"That's because this /has/ happened before." He told her disparagingly. Then he paused and looked at her almost quizzically, his grow furrowed. Didn't she remember? And the night in the library? Or was it such an insignificant experience that she didn't bother remembering it? For some reason that made him highly annoyed. Perhaps it was just because he had spent so long thinking on it, but he felt foolish. Draco Malfoy was not accustomed to feeling foolish.

But Luna nodded with a small shrug, looking out her window. Draco noticed that it wasn't raining, but it was night in her dream world, with the moons silver light shining in and throwing it's rays on her pallid visage. She almost reminded him of... His mother Narcissa had the same pale features, and almost the same blonde hair. Except for his mother's was straight, like Draco's, and Luna's had a slight wave to it, the strands finer and longer...

"-true." Luna was saying, and Draco blinked a few times. She turned to look at him, and he realized she was waiting for a response. What had she said? Draco immediately cursed himself for his idiocy and fixed his expression. He scowled at her with the appropriate amount of distaste and turned the knob of the door.

"Yeah, whatever, Loony." Draco said. He opened the door to the room with the cabinet and disappeared inside, frowning to himself. He was confused, but there was one thing that he did know, and that knowledge disturbed him almost as much as anything else.

Luna Lovegood had caught his interest.


	5. Chapter 5

_**Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, it's world, or it's characters. All of those belong to the amazing J.K. Rowling, and anyone she had sold the rights to. That does not include me. I do not make any profit from this fanfiction, and no copyright infringement is intended. I only own this spin-off of her world, nothing else that is recognizable as the world or characters of Harry Potter.**_

He had only been working on the cabinet for a little more than ten minutes, or so said one of the many clocks strewn throughout the crowded room full of miscellaneous objects people had elected to hide over the centuries.

Draco opened up the cabinet and slipped inside a small rat, praying that it would work this time. He needed to get the thing fixed before his deadline ran out—that way he would at least have _something _to present the Dark Lord, even if he couldn't do the other job ordered of him… he might not be killed if he pleased the Dark Lord in one way.

He had just closed the wooden cabinet door when a noise behind him alerted him to another presence in the room. Draco whipped around, his wand out of his robes and pointing towards the intruder. He didn't know who he expected it to be… after all, one of his requirements of the room had been for no one but himself be allowed to enter Draco did know, however, that he had not expected one Luna Lovegood.

She was standing by the door looking around curiously at the many objects, seeming completely unconcerned about the wand Draco had pointed at her chest. He gaped at her, completely in shock. How had she gotten in? For one crazed second he wondered if she wasn't human and if the room was susceptible to… well, whatever she was. After all, nobody could say that Loony acted like any rational human being.

Then he realized himself and shook his head slightly, his features turning to malice automatically. "What the bloody hell are you doing here? How did you get in?" He spat, stormy grey eyes fixed on her, his wand unwavering, If she had seen what he was doing… if she knew…

"Oh, I was already using the Room of Requirement when you asked for this place, so it's impossible to keep me out." The blonde witch replied quite cheerfully, looking curiously around the place. She stepped over to some odd looking tiara on a fake bust and Draco frowned.

Now that she knew what he was doing in here he couldn't keep her out even if she wasn't in the room at the time…

"Damn it!" He cursed to himself, lowering his wand to kick a stack of books in frustration. He leaned against the door of the cabinet, closing his eyes. He clenched his jaw and thought about how the Dark Lord was going to react to this, how his _father _would react to this…

No, he couldn't tell them. He would be killed for certain. Draco had been practicing Occlumency and he was confident he could keep his father from finding out about this, but Draco hadn't tested his ability against the Dark Lord yet, and he had no desire to. Draco had some sense of self-preservation and making the Dark Lord think he had secrets against him was not a good way to go about preserving one's self.

"You shouldn't curse, you know. It's a bad habit." Luna said idly in her soprano voice, and Draco whirled around, his fine silver hair falling into his face as he raised his wand to point directly at the Ravenclaw girl.

"I'm going to have to obliviate you." He said in a voice too shaky for his liking. He was starting to sweat, gripping his ebony wand furiously as his knuckles turned white with the effort. Luna turned to look at him and her crystalline blue eyes were wide, for once showing that she understood the situation.

Draco didn't want to do it. He had never performed the spell before and doing so would be very risky. He wasn't really concerned for Luna. But what would the school do if she lost all of her memory, like Gilderoy Lockhart had in second year? They would start looking for who did it, and if anyone had seen them both enter the Room of Requirement…

But it was a chance he had to take. Draco took a deep breath and fixed his eyes on hers. She was staring at him with an expression he couldn't identify. Almost… pity? He ignored it and whispered the word under his breath.

"Obliviate."


	6. Chapter 6

_**Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, it's world, or it's characters. All of those belong to the amazing J.K. Rowling, and anyone she had sold the rights to. That does not include me. I do not make any profit from this fanfiction, and no copyright infringement is intended. I only own this spin-off of her world, nothing else that is recognizable as the world or characters of Harry Potter.**_

"Expelliarmus!" He heard a shout interrupt his own. Draco was expecting it. Even Loony wouldn't just stand there and let her memories be erased. Not to mention she was a member of Dumbledore's Army—as much as he hated to admit it, that did say that she was prepared to fight. They hadn't been titled 'Army' for nothing.

"Protego!" Draco cast the shield charm which blocked her red spell and locked eyes with her. She suddenly looked different from how he had ever seen her before; normally, Luna Lovegood looked like she lived in a different world. She was spacey and absent, and only really seemed to care about creatures no one else knew existed and her father's newspaper.

Now, however, her eyes were bright and focused on Draco, determined. She seemed to have gone through an amazing transformation, and the normal whimsical air was gone to be replaced with someone very serious—someone who was ready to fight.

Draco liked it.

But he had no more time to think about it for soon Luna was shooting another spell from her wand. "Expecto Patronum!" She shouted, and Draco paused. What was she thinking? He wasn't a dementor! He almost smiled. Perhaps she was still crazy Luna after all.

Then again, maybe she wasn't. A silver rabbit materialized in front of her and Draco only took a moment to look at it before starting another hex. He needed to obliviate her and he wasn't about to play games.

He had underestimated her ingenuity. The rabbit came straight for him just as he shouted "Petrificus totalus!" and blocked his vision, papering his view with the shiny creature that ran back and forth right in front of his face. Draco stumbled back and his spell shot toward the opposite wall instead. A loud crashing noise came and Draco steadied himself on a small statue.

The patronus was gone… so was Luna. Draco's eyes narrowed and he backed up against a wall, scanning the room for long blonde hair. He held his wand out in front of him in a defensive pose and slowly walked to the corner of the room so she could only come at him from a few directions.

Bookcases, dressers, statues, paintings, and a million other things littered the floor and walls, making the perfect hiding place for the witch. She had the advantage now and Draco knew he had to find her before she through another hex at him.

"Revealio-"He started under his breath, but a red shot of sparks came shooting towards him from the right hand corner of the room. Draco smirked and dodged it with a seeker's agility, quickly changing the angle of his wand to point towards the origin of the spell.

"Stupify!" Draco shouted. His spell hit a wooden chest and the drawers flung open. Pieces of parchment rained down all around the room and Draco squinted, trying to focus. There! Luna ran across the room and Draco raised his wand, his lips already forming the next spell when—

"Expelliarmus!" shouted a voice far different from his own, and Draco's wand flew from his hand into Luna's. The papers settled on the floor with soft rustling sounds as Draco stood stock still, his eyes wide as he looked at the witch who had disarmed him.

Luna was pointing her own wand at him and Draco looked at her warily. She still had that same expression on her face, the one that Draco didn't know. The one that said she knew what she was doing and she wasn't afraid to attack. The countenance that told Draco she wasn't just the docile, airy girl people thought she was.

Draco was reminded forcefully that she was a Ravenclaw—she was intelligent and cunning, and she knew what to do to get things her way. Her reputation had made him think of her as just Harry Potter's friend, who he had taken to Slughorn's party, and now Draco understood why.

He slowly raised his hands in front of him in surrender, but his eyes were darting around the room for anything he could use to escape. Instantly Luna said something softly under her breath and everything near Draco was pushed several feet away, including the paper on the ground at his feet.

He had no means to escape, and that seemed much direr now than it had been five minutes earlier.

_**A/N:**_

_**Sorry this took so long! I was gone at my grandmother's house, taking care of her husband (he's bedridden) and her computer is dreadfully slow. I'm home now, though, and I expect to be updating much more frequently now.**_

_**By the way, I loved writing this chapter. Thanks to everyone who wrote reviews; they gave me the push I needed to write this!**_


	7. Chapter 7

_**Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, it's world, or it's characters. All of those belong to the amazing J.K. Rowling, and anyone she had sold the rights to. That does not include me. I do not make any profit from this fanfiction, and no copyright infringement is intended. I only own this spin-off of her world, nothing else that is recognizable as the world or characters of Harry Potter.**_

It was silent. Draco and Luna just looked at each other, and slowly Draco's cocky arrogance started coming back as he realized that Luna wasn't attacking. Then, he thought, what could she do? Perhaps try and obliviate him? That was it. She was too inherently_ good_ to kill him, and stunning him would only be a very temporary fix. She had to protect herself against Draco, and there wasn't really any way to do that bar leaving Hogwarts.

"If you're going to hex me, go ahead and do it." Draco sneered. He was testing her. He was sure she wouldn't, but he needed to be one hundred percent certain first. Women were irrational, even Ravenclaw ones, and he wasn't sure how far ahead she was thinking. If she just decided she would hex him as a warning to what would happen if he tried to obliviate her again then he had no way to stop her without a wand. He could try and physically over power her, and if he got to her he would succeed... But he had already seen that Luna Lovegood was quick with her wand and he didn't want to test those waters.

She didn't say anything in response to his comment, but a small crease appeared between her eyebrows as the corners of her lips twitched down into a frown.

That was proof enough for Draco. He took a slow step forward, his hands still raised in the universal 'I don't have a wand so don't hex me' gesture. Luna tightened her grip on her wand and pointed it a little higher on his chest as a warning. Draco didn't move any farther forward, but he didn't step back either. He couldn't obliviate her without a wand, but she would have to give his wand back eventually-the only problem was what she did first.

"Come on. This is pointless." Draco started, and his voice had a carefully measured soft quality to it. He wasn't being cold or rude; because she had the wands. "You're not going to hurt me. It wouldn't help you. It would only be a temporary fix; you need a permanent one. You aren't going to leave Hogwarts because of this, and neither am I."

Luna's frown grew deeper, and Draco had to force his expression to keep a smirk from twisting his features. He was appealing to her reasonable side, her Ravenclaw side; though he had no idea how long this unearthly girl would stay connected to reality. She could hex him saying something about his having creatures in his brain at any moment. He just had to get her to do what he wanted before then.

"We can work this out somehow." Draco said slowly, carefully, and Luna's bright blue eyes met his. He kept eye contact carefully while he took another step forward, and again she raised her wand and he stopped. He didn't fancy testing his luck at this point.

Luna Lovegood didn't know what to do. Her mind was searching through the possibilities—this boy was determined to make her forget this room, about seeing him there. Why was that, though? She hadn't seen him do anything strange. In fact, if he hadn't reacted so horribly, she would have assumed he was making a present for his mother or something. He had made a mistake in trying to make her forget; he only ensured that she would fight to retain the knowledge.

There were three options that she could see: obliviate him so he wouldn't remember she was there was perhaps the easiest and yet would also be more likely to cause one or both of them damage as they hadn't been taught obliviation spells before. Another was to make him think that she had some power over him that he couldn't obliviate her, though she couldn't immediately think of anything to suit that category. The last one was to make him think that he had power over her, that she wouldn't tell because she was afraid of him.

She was not a particularly prideful person, especially not for a pureblood, and Luna knew that Draco Malfoy was. It would be the best to play on that, to let him think he had her in his control and then hope it all blew over. Besides, she was supposed to meet Ginny after her Quidditch practice in only a short while…

"If I obliviate you and it doesn't work right, then someone will find out and one of the teachers could search your mind and find what happened." Luna said carefully, thinking of how best to manipulate her own words to have him believe he had control without obliviating her; that he could use her. "If I hex you, you will still come after me later and try and obliviate me, in which case you're in the same situation I would be if I obliviated you, and vice versa for the hexing." She frowned slightly, her pink lips pulling down into an uncharacteristic expression for the young witch. "But if I simply run and tell a teacher about this, they will be unable to garner any proof. I can't really do anything that doesn't hurt me."

Draco was looking at her, his frown mirroring hers. Then his expression slowly changed and she thought she saw something akin to triumph in his silvery eyes. The seed was set; Draco Malfoy had figured out that the only way to resolve this was for him to blackmail her. With what, Luna had no idea. What could possibly matter that much to her? But it didn't matter. She would leave that up to him.

Slowly and deliberately Luna backed to the door to the Room of Requirement. When she had her hand on the doorknob she waited a carefully measured second before tossing his wand to the side of the room opposite the Slytherin and dashing through into the lit corridors of Hogwarts.

_**A/N:**_

_**I am dreadfully sorry this took a while because of the Holidays, but it is a bit longer and hopefully you will all enjoy it.**_

_**I know where this story is headed, but I'd like to hear your ideas. Review, please, and thank you to all that did!**_


	8. Chapter 8

_**Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, it's world, or it's characters. All of those belong to the amazing J.K. Rowling, and anyone she had sold the rights to. That does not include me. I do not make any profit from this fanfiction, and no copyright infringement is intended. I only own this spin-off of her world, nothing else that is recognizable as the world or characters of Harry Potter.**_

He had let her leave. Draco let the Ravenclaw witch leave the Room of Requirement after she had seen that he had been using it to fix the Vanishing Cabinet that Fred and George Weasley had so helpfully revealed the existence of a year before.

Of course, Draco couldn't assume that she knew about the Vanishing Cabinet at all, with her dreamy, hardly-there attitude. She could have never even heard about it, as Draco wouldn't put it past her to ignore everything that didn't have to do with Wrackspurts or Nargles. Plus, even if she did know about it, there wasn't to say that she knew what it looked like, or really even understood what he had been doing with it…

But how could he have taken that chance?

His father would curse him into Merlin's beard if he knew what had just transpired. Draco grimly thanked Salazar that Lucius Malfoy was many miles away, and not due for a letter to his son anytime soon. Though he would have to lie to his mother in her next owl…

It didn't matter. What did matter was how to keep Loony silent now that she might know about him. At her earlier words, Draco had thought about what his family could do to her father and his newspaper if they needed to. Of course, his whole family's involvement would require telling them about the events, but Draco could do some damage himself if he wanted. The problem was, _The Quibbler_'s reputation was already so horrible that there wasn't much more to say bad about that rubbish that hadn't already been said.

However, Draco did have power in Hogwarts itself. All of the Slytherins would back his play, and if he chose Loony Lovegood as a target, there wouldn't be an eyebrow raised as to the reason. He didn't _need _a reason to try and make people miserable.

He soon realized the flaw with that plan.

"What are you looking at?" His best mate, Blaise Zabini, asked with a light Italian accent over breakfast in the Great Hall the next day, following Draco's line of site to the Ravenclaw table. "Has someone caught your eye?"

Pansy Parkinson, who was sitting next to Draco and babbling some nonsense that Draco found very easy to ignore, immediately frowned. "Of course not." She said sharply, reaching her hand out to touch Draco's hair. "Right, Drakey?"

Draco brushed her hand away and stood up suddenly, annoyance plain in his features, and stalked over to the Ravenclaw table, followed after a few seconds by Crabbe and Goyle, staring at their food longingly but following the Slytherin Prince all the same.

"Oi, Loony." Draco called, and several students turned to look at the wizard approaching the blonde witch, who turned around after a moment, looking only mildly curious.

He could see Ginny Weasley stand up from the Gryffindor table out of the corner of his eye, but ignored her. "How's your father doing? Have they put him away in the loony-bin at Saint Mungo's for that ridiculous paper he prints? What's it called, _The Quacker_?" The Slytherin's laughed obediently, and Draco felt smug when he saw Luna's eyebrows crease, a small frown on her delicate features.

"_The Quibbler._" She replied calmly, holding up the magazine she was reading sideways as if certain he had actually gotten the name wrong. Surely she wasn't _that _stupid—on the other hand, maybe she knew what he was doing, and didn't want to play along. Well, he would make her. A mouse didn't just stand there when a kneazle was stalking it; it ran or fought. He wanted Luna to fight with him—why? Because he wanted some interaction; anything that would make her notice him. She hadn't looked at him a single time during breakfast, and Draco was pissed off. How could she just ignore _him_, of all people?

"Yeah, well that piece of rubbish is—" but he didn't get to finish his sentence because Ginny Weasley drew her wand, and Draco did as well, automatically—but it was Luna who fired a spell, a shielding charm separating the two and knocking them back a few feet.

"Detention!" A low voice said disapprovingly, and Professor Slughorn was standing by the scene, frowning at the three. Draco scowled, but put his wand away, as did the other two. Luna looked entirely unconcerned, but the Weaselette was livid, face nearly as red as her hair. "The three of you." Slughorn amended, and Draco was about to protest when he heard another voice.

"I'll take Miss Weasley, Horace. She is in my house, after all." Professor McGonnagal said stiffly, staring down her nose as Ginny, who didn't have the grace to look ashamed.

"Very well, very well." Professor Slughorn said, turning back to Draco and Luna. "Detention in the potions classroom at eight, and don't be late."

That hadn't gone exactly as intended.

_**A/N:**_

_**I do apologize for the very long delay—you can't imagine what was going on in my life. However, I do intend to finish this story, if anyone is still interested in reading it.**_


	9. Chapter 9

_**Well, here it is. I didn't think I would do it, but I have started back on this story, and I'm going to finish it this summer. I started writing again and I read through these old reviews, and I couldn't believe the support. I teared up reading the compliments and how much people had enjoyed this. I hope maybe a few of you are willing to stick with me until the end.**_

Draco was seriously considering brewing his own Felix Felicious potion. He'd had little progress on the Vanishing Cabinet, what with Loony Lovegood getting in the way, and he was no closer to successfully killing his Headmaster. The stress was overwhelming. Draco didn't eat dinner that night, instead staying in his dorm room, laying on his bed and staring up at the ceiling.

Everything he did failed. The Vanishing Cabinet was far from the only thing. He had never beaten Potter at Quidditch, and then know-it-all Mudblood Granger managed to somehow surpass him in every single class, except for potions from the last five years. Now, though, Slughorn showed the little witch favor and Draco had fallen to third place. Behind Potter, of all people! The scarred bastard who couldn't normally get even an "A" without Granger's help, and now he was even beating Granger, taking top of the class with straight "O"s. It was disgusting, to say the least.

Draco rolled over onto his side, curling up on top of the silken black sheets. Draco was intelligent. He was handsome, rich, and had the best blood out of anyone at Hogwarts. So why did he feel so... inadequate? So useless? Even Loony Lovegood had friends. She had Longbottom, the two Weasels, Potter, and even Granger. Not that Draco wanted them as friends! Merlin, no. But he couldn't deny, he wished he had a friendship as strong as they seemed to have. Blaise was as close as they came, but his family wasn't involved with the Dark Lord. He couldn't discuss his mission with Blaise. And Theodore was _too_ involved.

Sitting up straight, Draco conjured a mirror with the flick of his wand and examined his reflection. Pale skin with a tinge of grey that seemed to stick too closely to his cheek bones. Silver eyes were dead and clouded. Even his prized hair seemed less healthy. It was dry and not as sleek as it had once been. Stubble lightly dusted his jaw, and he couldn't be bothered to shave it off. What a sorry state he had gotten in.

He rose slowly from his bed and straightened his grey button-up shirt, the same color as his eyes. Draco fixed his hair back into it's impeccable style with a simple charm and threw on an outer robe, forgoing the sanctioned tie. Then, he left to go to one of the last places he wanted to be: detention with the walrus and Ravenclaw chit.

Draco walked slowly to his doom, dragging his feet down the staircases. As much as Malfoy dignity would allow, in any case. He was at the door to Slughorn's classroom far too quickly, and was, disappointingly, only a minute late.

"Ah, Draco, m'boy." Slughorn greeted, although he seemed less than pleased to see the young pureblood. Luna Lovegood was standing in front of the man's desk, blonde hair tied back in a very long ponytail that reached just to the swell of her bottom. Draco quickly took his head away from those thoughts and onto what the Potions' Master was saying.

"-would have sent you off to the greenhouses with Professor Sprout, as she needs some help with the Mandrake roots, but it's raining buckets out there. Instead, you shall be brewing Madam Pomfrey five vials of Blood-Replenishing Potion each." Draco suppressed a groan. Blood-Replenishing Potions were notoriously difficult to cut ingredients for, as they were so testy about the exact size of the leaves and such. It was also incredibly boring, as there was nothing to do after setting the potion a boil, except for to make sure the temperature stayed steady for thirty-three minutes precisely.

"I will know if you try and leave this room." Slughorn warned, backing his large body towards the door. "I shall be in my office if either of you need me. You are free to leave after all ten potions have been made. Do well!"

With that, the blustering walrus was gone, and Draco was left alone with the current pervader of his thoughts. Surely Slughorn had just put up a simple warning charm to alert them if they left. Draco could get past that. But then Luna would tell on him... damn. It looked like he really was stuck with the abominable witch for the entire hour.

"Let's get this over with." He sneered, going over to the supplies cabinet and hauling out a rusty pewter contraption that was clearly made for the likes of Weasley's, and not Malfoy's. Draco sniffed in disdain, mostly for show, but set the cauldron on his own chosen table and gathered the necessary ingredients in silence.

At first, he was hopeful. Luna didn't say a word, and he began to cheer up. Perhaps this would go better than he thought. However, after five minutes of silence, he began to grow annoyed. Was his presence not... _bothering_ her? She seemed to not care less whether he was around. It was frustrating. Malfoy's were simply not ignored.

This whole time, he had been determinedly looking at his own ingredients and cutting them meticulously. The muleraddish was shaved and cut into small, 1/8 inch by 3 inch slivers. Finally, after a total of ten minutes had passed, according to the heavy silver watch on Draco's wrist, he looked up.

Luna had not moved an inch. She was sitting on her own table only two away from him, watching his progress. Her ingredients were gathered, but she had not even started to prepare them. Draco scowled and opened his mouth to snap at her, but then he noticed where her eyes were fixed. On his hands.

"You have beautiful hands." She told him, her permanently wide blue eyes not moving away from them. "Pale, long, and slender. I think they would be at rights playing the piano. Very precise and eloquent." Luna added dreamily, her voice breaking the silence like so many crystal beads falling on the hard stone floor.

Suddenly, she stood, and started walking towards him. Her movements were not hesitant, nor confident. It was more as if she were simply wandering in a direction that he so happened to be in. Draco stood completely still, his hands still poised on the muleraddish and silver blade. His heart was thumping loudly, but for what reason, he didn't know. Nothing made sense anymore.

She reached out with her own small hands and gently covered the fist holding the knife. He almost jumped, looking down at their hands. His knuckles were pure white from gripping the hilt so hard. Draco released it suddenly and it clattered to the wooden table. The sound broke him from his odd trance and he set down the muleraddish, making to back away.

"What are you-" he started, but even to his own ears the venom was gone, replaced by something wary and ever so slightly... curious?

"They are masculine, though." Luna suddenly said, cutting him off completely. Draco was too stunned to take insult. "They've caught the snitch so many times." She said, tilting her head as she took each of his hands in one of hers, studying them as though they were unicorn foals, rare, wild, and beautiful.

Her small fingers were so warm and soft. They felt like bliss, fire melting away the cool of the dungeon. Draco could smell her scent now. Wild clover and something spicier, almost musky. It was her natural scent. And it smelled better than all the perfume in the world.

Luna leaned closer to him, bringing his hands up to her eyes, intertwining their fingers. "I wondered how they would feel." she commented lightly. "Calloused," she decided after a moment, nodding her head as if to affirm her own statement. Her hair blew with a small breeze, a few silky strands floating to tickle his cheeks. Her shampoo must have been clover, because that smell pervaded all, even the stink from the muleraddish on his fingertips.

Draco looked up at her and was surprised to see that she was peering into his own eyes now, apparently done with her examination of his hands. She smiled at him suddenly, and Draco felt like reality was melting away even more. She leaned in a little bit closer, and Draco was frozen, unable to move. She closed her eyes, and just as Draco became convinced she was going to kiss him, she spoke again.

"Would you chop my ingredients for me?"


End file.
